1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clothes dryer, and more specifically, to a housing for a lint filter in a dryer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Clothes dryers, in particular, automatic clothes dryers, generally include lint filtering screens provided in an air flow path downstream of a dryer tumbling drum so that lint and other particulate matter entrained in the air stream is filtered therefrom prior to the air being exhausted from the dryer unit.
Generally, it is recommended that lint filters and screens be cleaned after each dryer load. However, cleaning of the lint filter is often neglected, allowing a quantity of lint to be deposited on the filter. Also, when certain types of articles are dried, greater quantities of lint than normal are produced, causing a heavy build-up on the lint filter. In any case, once the lint build-up has occurred, it impairs the operation of the dryer and, when the filter is removed for cleaning the lint tends to rub on the filter housing and fall off. For dryers having a lint screen at the dryer drum openings, lint falling from the lint screen usually drops into the dryer drum into the area occupied by the clothes load which undesirably redeposits the lint onto the clothes load.
An attempted solution to the problem of lint falling from a lint screen into the dryer drum is disclosed in Steward U.S. Pat. No. 2,722,751 wherein a lint trap 104 is mounted in an air flow duct 63 to trap lint and water vapor entrained in the air flow. The lint trap 104 includes a pair of inwardly directed bent arms 113 on an inner surface of grip elements 109 which prevent accumulated lint from sliding or rolling off the lint trap should the operator fail to clean the lint trap for an extended period of time.
Assignees copending application, Ser. No. 836,297 filed Mar. 5, 1986, utilizes a cover to solve this problem.